After months of battling through one of the nastiest and most expensive races in the country, the Tea Party freshman was knocked out of his seat, barely, by Democratic newcomer Patrick Murphy.

NBC called the race for Murphy early Wednesday morning. With 97 percent of votes counted and the remaining votes trickling in from a Democratic region, Murphy pulled off a win by less than 1,000 votes.

It was a tight race all night, which paralleled the razor-thin margins polls showed between the candidates over the past few months. West and Murphy were competing for Florida's 18th Congressional District, an evenly split district that was redrawn in 2010.